New Formula One Season

Well, only 18days to go til life re-starts, after all as Steve McQueen said: "Racing is life, anything before or after is just waiting"!

So, if there are any other F1 fans out there, who's your money on for the title?

I'm going for Massa to win.

Also I would be willing to bet (if I was a betting man but I'm not) that we will get our first "Pole on Pole" with BMWSauber's Kubica. I also think he'll get a win.

oh and one more thing, well two actually.
Did anyone else find it humorus that Villenuve said he thinks Kimi Raikkonen is overrated? That from a guy who only got to F1 because of his surname, and as soon as he lost Renault power never won another race!
And Montoya - what a laugh. Says he's got the talent to win NASCAR, well he's got a lot to learn, having watched the Daytona 500 live and the highlights of this weeks race, he looks very very average and certainly can't handle a Nextel Cup car in the draft!

I think this season could be closer than ever Massa will be up there challenging but you can't write off Alonso i know he's changed teams but i think he might just sneek it !

Looking forward to see what the others have to offer Kubica looked good last year and i agree we may well see a win from him this year and then there's good old Jenson think he's got another win up his sleeve somewhere !!

With regards old Jenson, he may well have a win in there somewhere, but the car looks awful with that map on it.
In Autosport today they report that there may have been sponsorship problems (ie no one wanted to sponsor HondaF1) and that they were trying to get a deal with Sanyo but it fell through and that's why the livery was chosen.
Also said that the reason the engine cover is black is because the heat from the engine would burn off the stickers - well what about the logos that have been on engine covers for years?
Rumour is that the Ferrari engine was the hottest V8 last year, yet the giant Marlboro logos and the huge red bull on the RBRs never came off.

I really cannot get excited about formula one anymore. Too much money, too much technology, too much tinkering by Bernie.
It is useful as a showcase for money buying the title and that is just about it. I hope this season proves me wrong but I doubt I'll bother watching anyway.

Superbikes / Moto GP on the other hand... now that's a really exciting form of racing. Already booked my tickets to go to Estorill.

Even with a good car he would still have to be a fairly decent driver to get the best out of it. Anyway, the best driver in the world isn't driving this year so there's not any great drivers out there for him to test himself against. Personally I would like to see him win it but I don't think he will. At least, not this year.

So....watched today's Grand Prix, with some amazement to see Lewis Hamilton take a forth podium place out of four races...(not to mention taking top spot in the drivers championship!)

So is this lad really the racing phenomenon he appears to be, or is he just lucky to have got a place with the 2nd best team on the circuit behind Ferarri???

Of course he has to be good, but do you think he really is THAT good???

Personally, I'm beginning to believe he may just be!

Click to expand...

I think he really is that good. A once in a couple of generations special. Being a motorsport geek I remember him doing the McLaren karting challenge in the 90's when it was televised and he won just about every race going.

Yes he has a pretty good car, but there are two things to remember:

1. Last weekend, for just about the whole time he was faster than a current double world-champion in the same car. But it's not just the last race where he was quick - he's kept Alonso honest all season.

2. Ron Dennis has invested something like 3 million quid into his career. Anyone who follows F1, or has even seen McLaren's monster factory will know that Ron Dennis is no chump. He would not invest that sort of money without a very good reason.

Lewis Hamilton really IS THAT good.
He's got an amazing racing brain (that'll be from the 11 years of McLaren growth he's had). Just look at how stupid Senor Alsono was at turn one and compare that to Lewis, who back off slightly to avoid the said Sapiniard's car as he careered back across the track.

Will Lewis win the title this year???
Possibly, but I still stand by my opening post that Massa is my favourite for the title.

Provided the Ferrari doesnt start to develop Gremlins as can sometimes be the case after one electronics failure, then a Red team driver will win the title I think.
But I think McLaren will have a nice returnee to the trophy room in the shape of the Manufacturers title.

I've guessed at the last 10 champions (my dad - Peter Bale will tell you) and have only got 1 wrong - that was when Alonso beat Michael Schumacher in 05. (well thinking about that its actually only 3 champs in 10 years)

Funny, it depends who you ask about that. The story in MCN was he was within three seconds of Schumacher in a car that wasn;t set up for him on a track he didn't know. Either way, still not bad for first spin though eh?

Would've been interesting to stick Schuey on a yamaha M1 and see if he could get within half a dozen seconds of Rossi. Probably not, I'd suspect.

If anyone out of the F1 grid could hack a bike rice, I reckon it'd be Coulthard. At least he's ridden bikes before.

I know formula 1 drivers need lots of bottle to bomb around at 200mph, but they've forgotton the one thing that makes lots of fast vehicles on a track into an actual RACE.

Desert raid bikes are a very different proposition to full GP bikes though, albeit the 1990s 500cc GP series was dominated by racers bred in dirt-track. They were the only ones who could master the rear-wheel steering necessary when an engine's putting out 60-70bhp more than the frame can handle. Riders like Rainey, Schwantz, Doohan, Gardner and Hislop kicking 'em sideways with a big fistful of throttle is sadly, a thing of the past.

Seems a pretty specialised field either way. There's only John Surtees ever combined world titles on four wheels and two. But Damon hill is a keen biker, so who knows, if he'd not come to racing so late, he might have had time to go bike racing as well as win an F1 title.

Aaron Slight wound up in British touring cars for a bit too, although I'm not sure he was any more successful there than he was in superbikes!

Well Lewis got a great win today.
Kept his nerve for 5 starts (the grid then 4 safety cars) and kept of the way of the once again foolish and extremely over ambious Alonso.
I think that Alonso's impaitience could cost him the title this year.

There is an old saying that you can win a race by trying too hard, but not a championship.

Freddie spencer once won a 500GP title without ever winning a race! Everyone around him was 1st, DNF, 12th, 18th, 3rd and allsorts of up and down finishes like that. Freddie was consistently 2nd and 3rd all season, and his consistency paid off.

Usually it's better to play the percentages and take the 2nd place points than push too hard for the win and have the risk of a spill and a DNF.

All great champions have that mentality in their locker - with the exception perhaps of Senna, who was win or crash trying in every race.

Not sure Alonso's got that coolness about him - although it;s starting to look like Hamilton has.

Did anyone else find it humorus that Villenuve said he thinks Kimi Raikkonen is overrated? That from a guy who only got to F1 because of his surname, and as soon as he lost Renault power never won another race!

For a man with such breathtaking arrogance - like the incident when he famously said on live TV that he was "Taking a s**t" rather than attending Michael Schumacher's presentation for breaking Juan Manuel Fangio's record - he's done precious little to back it up on the track...exept find more excuses.

And Jaques Villeneuve may be overrated too - but at least he won a world title - something Raikonnen is unlikely ever to do.

I have tried and better tried to get interested in this F1 season and I just can't. I didn't miss a race last year and have been a big F1 fan for as long as I can remember. The only reason I can find is that I can't find a "hero" in the sport at the moment. I remember Senna, Prost, Mansell, Hill and laterly Schumacher and can't identify a current driver who is of the same "status" as them. I understand there are some very talented drivers in the sport at the moment but they're lacking something in my opinion and I don't find I am captivated in the same way.

I subscribe to the F1 magazine too and have done for several years, it's an awful feeling losing the enthusiasm for the sport, hopefully it will return in time but currently I have little or no interest in who wins anything.